Private equity manager BPEA EQT will take the Japan-listed education and nursing care provider Benesse Holdings private, per an announcement.
BPEA EQT said its eighth fund and Benesse’s founding family will commence a tender offer to privatise the company.
Benesse said in its announcement that the tender offer price is 2,600 yen ($17.2) per share, and the transaction will start in early February 2024.
A Wall Street Journal report said BPEA EQT will spend about $1.37 billion on the management buyout.
Currently listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, Benesse is the largest provider of education services for all ages and fee-paying nursing care homes in Japan with over 350 facilities nationwide, according to BPEA EQT.
Benesse had 411.8 billion yen ($2.7 billion) in net sales as of March 2023.
“Japan’s education sector is growing, driven by increasing demand for adult training and reskilling of its labour force, as well as increased demand for e-learning modalities in the K-12 segment. The nursing care sector is also growing, driven by demographic tailwinds of Japan’s ageing population,” BPEA EQT said.
BPEA Private Equity Fund VIII will be about 40-45% invested following this transaction.
The fund was closed last year at $11.2 billion. In the same year, BPEA completed its business combination with EQT in a 6.8 billion euro deal ($7.3 billion).
In 2023, the combined firm merged its Hong Kong-based business services firms Vistra and Tricor, as well as made commitments to invest in sports school IMG Academy, Indian fertility clinic chain Indira IVF, Housing Development Finance Corp’s education finance arm, and Malaysia-based Viewpoint Software.
DealStreetAsia reported last month that BPEA EQT was in advanced talks to invest in Indian digital engineering services firm Indium Software. In terms of divestment, it fully exited Indian IT services firm Coforge this year.
